U.S. feels like 1973 with hot abortion issue

WASHINGTON -- Forty years after the Supreme Court legalized abortion, the constitutional right many Americans take for granted is coming under increased scrutiny.

State legislatures are passing limits on abortion-related services. More abortion providers face stepped-up regulations, and more patients face strictly worded counseling sessions or ultrasound tests. At least four states have one clinic performing abortions.

Despite winning many battles over the past four decades, anti-abortion forces may be losing the war.

The landmark Roe v. Wade decision of Jan. 22, 1973, still stands. The Supreme Court’s slim majority in favor of abortion rights remains intact. And at least for another four years, presumably, President Barack Obama will ensure that doesn’t change.

“We understand that we have a long road ahead of us,” said Mary Spaulding Balch, state legislation director for the National Right to Life Committee. “So many factors play a role in whether or not we will have the majority on the Supreme Court.

“But we’re working to get all those factors lined up so that sometime in the future, we will have the ability to reverse Roe.”

In the meantime, the number and rate of abortions have declined throughout the past decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, because of a drop in teen pregnancies and increased use of birth control. The impact of new state restrictions isn’t clear.

Although public opinion polls have been relatively steady for two generations in favor of legal abortion, one trend is growing: Among the majority of Americans born since Roe was decided, nearly four in 10 don’t know it’s about abortion, the Pew Research Center found.

Taken together, all those trends — legislative, legal, political, medical, public opinion — show why both sides continue to fight like it’s still 1973.

Jan. 22, 1973, will forever be frozen in history for proponents and opponents of abortion rights.

In the court’s 7-2 decision, Justice Harry Blackmun declared all state abortion bans unconstitutional because they interfered with the rights to privacy and liberty. Any future decision reversing Roe would not end legal abortion; rather, the authority would return to the states.

Less understood is the pregnancy timetable set by the decision. It allowed states to regulate abortions once the fetus reaches a state of viability capable of living outside the womb — providing for exceptions when the mother’s health is at risk.

In the decades since, limitations have increased. A 1980 case restricted the use of Medicaid funds for abortions to cases involving rape, incest or the life of the mother. A 1989 case upheld a Missouri ban on using public facilities or employees to perform abortions.

Then, in 1992’s Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the court granted states broad authority to require counseling and waiting periods, and parental consent for minors, before any abortions — as long as such laws didn’t constitute an “undue burden.”

The last major ruling came in 2007, when the high court upheld the federal ban on so-called partial-birth abortions, usually performed between 20 and 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The decision was written by Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, who became the court’s swing vote upon the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor in 2006.

“That was a real turning point for Supreme Court observers — ‘They allowed this prohibition, what else will they allow?’” said Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life.

Since then, states have experimented with tougher restrictions, and supporters of abortion rights have challenged many in court.

The trickle of state restrictions on abortion became a deluge in 2011, when 92 provisions passed in 24 states. Last year produced 43 more, according to a survey by the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health think tank that supports abortion rights.

Laws in Arizona and Georgia that seek to ban abortion at about 20 weeks, or in cases where the fetus could feel pain, have been blocked in court.

The Arizona law is before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, a liberal tribunal unlikely to uphold it. Seven other states have similar bans — Alabama, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska, North Carolina and Oklahoma.

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